$98 HD DVD player mania talk continues

The decision to put the Toshiba HD-A2 on sale at Wal-Mart is being described by some as a last ditch effort to play the price card in order to get more people on board with the HD DVD format. Some have also described this as nothing more than Toshiba dumping its overstock HD-A2 inventory to unsuspecting consumers who do not understand the full impact of the hi-definition disc format battle.

We were able to purchase an HD-A2 with no problem at 8 A.M. this past Friday at a local Wal-Mart store. The store had less than 20 total units for sale and upon our arrival, we found that more people were interested in the Acer laptop that was also part of Wal-Mart’s pre-black Friday sale than were interested in the HD DVD player. Closer to 9 A.M. a few more people did arrive asking to purchase the HD-A2, but when we left, there were still about ten HD-A2 players left.

Reports from around the Internet indicate that sales of the HD-A2 at Wal-Mart were brisk and did sell out at most locations. Best Buy went as far to match Wal-Mart’s price on the HD-A2 player, but quickly ran out of stock. This has led to an interesting E-mail that was sent to Best Buy customers who attempted to order the player over the Internet; it stated that the HD-A2 supplies had been exhausted and they did not anticipate that they would be getting any additional units.

However, the good news is that many of these customers were told in the E-mail that their order would be filled with the third generation HD-A3 player which was being substituted for the HD-A2. This is an even better deal for $98 due to the fact that the HD-A3 includes two movies which are 300 and Bourne Identity that come in the box with the player. Like the HD-A2, the HD-A3 is also able to take advantage of the 5 free HD DVDs mail-in movie offer.

The end result is that a lot of HD DVD players were sold and a lot of HD DVD movies were, as well. Will this tip the HD movie format war over to the HD DVD format for the time being? It will be interesting to see how this all sorts out with the sales reports this week. Still, it was a good beginning to gain some traction for the HD DVD format, that is for sure.